Congressman: Reps. More Serious About Hill Baseball Game than Legislating

The annual Congressional baseball game between Republicans and Democrats is so heated that Representatives apparently care more about practicing and preparing for the game than actually legislating.

On Thursday, Democrats pummeled Republicans 22-0, but, a detailed report in the National Journal about the game shows that Republicans did not lose due to a lack of effort.

Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) told the National Journal, “How serious do we take this? … We’re up at 5:30 [every] morning, practicing for an hour and a half, for one game. You won’t see a lot of these guys this serious in their other congressional duties.”

The piece profiles Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), the former college baseball player some are calling the best to ever play in the game, and how Republicans spent the year preparing to defeat him. It also gives a good history of the annual game.

The publication also reports after before last year’s game, Republicans even “invested in new pitching machines they could crank up to 85 mph to get used to Richmond’s speed” and “also brought in some young hard-throwing staffers and a few former minor leaguers to toss batting practice.”